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Tag Archives: Mars

In a flawless, triumphant technological tour de force, a plutonium-powered rover the size of a small car was lowered at the end of 25-foot-long cables from a hovering rocket stage onto Mars early on Monday morning.

A crowd of some 5000 people gathered on the plaza at NASA Ames Research Center late last night (it was only Monday Morning on the east coast) to watch presentations by mission scientists and finally the live broadcast, on the big screen.

This was a thrill. Not only was the landing process itself incredible— watch this video, “Seven minutes of terror” if you haven’t —but it was amazing to be in a crowd of so many people excited to watch the landing as well. Many of the people in the audience screaming and cheering had worked on various parts of the mission, including the ground-breaking (pun intended) scientific instruments aboard the rover and the new lifting-body heat shield to get it there.

On Sunday night, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity (the one on the right; the biggest, baddest, most awesomest Mars rover ever) will attempt to land on Mars. Curiosity is a nuclear powered Mini Cooper sized robotic geologist, much bigger and more capable than previous rovers. It’s going to be a moment of great excitement when Curiosity touches down, and there are a number of ways that you can watch.

If you have the opportunity (Mars rover pun intended) check with your local science museum, planetarium or hackerspace to find out if they’re hosting a viewing party.

Here in California, the Exploratorium currently hasa special exhibition up, including the simplified full-scale model of the rover in the picture above. They will be airing a live webcast of the landing on Sunday night. And, NASA Ames Exploration Center in Mountain View, is hosting a live broadcast on-site with over 5000 people. The free tickets for the event went very quickly.

In a bizarre and surreal (and quite brilliant) approach to reporting the news, the lander apparently has a Twitter feed… in the first person! Get this: “I’ve entered the gravity well of Mars.” Whoever came up with this idea, I salute in your general direction.

Also… GO EARTH!!! Today is our first chance after 43 years to finally bring this game to a tie.